List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China

The British Ambassador to China is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in the People's Republic of China, and in charge of the UK's diplomatic mission in China. The ambassador's official title is His Brittanic Majesty's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.^[1]

The UK recognized the People's Republic of China in 1950, although the PRC did not agree to the exchange of ambassadors until 1972. Prior to this, the United Kingdom had sent ministers to the Qing Empire and variously ministers and ambassadors to the Republic of China. The Embassy offices have been located in Peking (Beijing), Nanking (Nanjing), or both. Currently the British Ambassador to China is Caroline Wilson, she became ambassador in September 2020.

List of heads of mission

1792–1794: George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney1815-1817: William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Imperial China (during the First Opium War)

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Imperial China (held by the Governor of Hong Kong)

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Imperial China

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the Republic of China

Ambassadors to the Republic of China

Chargés d'affaires to the People's Republic of China

The United Kingdom recognized Communist China in January 1950 and posted a chargé d'affaires in the new capital of Beijing. However, China was unwilling to exchange ambassadors until the British consulate in Taipei was withdrawn in 1972.^[5]

Ambassadors to the People's Republic of China

See also

• List of ambassadors of China to the United Kingdom
• China–United Kingdom relations
• Taiwan–United Kingdom relations
• Ambassadors of China
• Heads of Diplomatic Missions of the United Kingdom
• Foreign relations of China
• Foreign relations of the United Kingdom

References

1. "Caroline Wilson appointed as Her Majesty's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China".
2. E. W. Edwards, 'MacDonald, Sir Claude Maxwell (1852–1915)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [1], accessed 5 November 2008
3. "No. 34331". The London Gazette. 13 October 1936. p. 6536.
4. The Diplomatic Service List 1966, p. 120.
5. "China Exchange of Ambassadors". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 13 March 1972.
6. Hoare, J.E., Embassies in the East, 1999, 2013 Routledge. "Chapter 5: Last years in the old Legation."

External links

• UK and China, gov.uk